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Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
The landmark, prize-winning, international bestselling examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women. #1 International Bestseller * Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award * Winner of the Royal Society Science Book Prize Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development to health care to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this insidious bias: in time, in money, and often with their lives. Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates this shocking root cause of gender inequality in Invisible Women. Examining the home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor's office, and more, Criado Perez unearths a dangerous pattern in data and its consequences on women's lives. Product designers use a "one-size-fits-all" approach to everything from pianos to cell phones to voice recognition software, when in fact this approach is designed to fit men. Cities prioritize men's needs when designing public transportation, roads, and even snow removal, neglecting to consider women's safety or unique responsibilities and travel patterns. And in medical research, women have largely been excluded from studies and textbooks, leaving them chronically misunderstood, mistreated, and misdiagnosed. Built on hundreds of studies in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, highly readable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.
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Community Reviews
It’s an eye-opening book, and one that I’ll probably be referring back to in the future. Criado Pérez has compiled a lot of information, making a pretty compelling argument that we have a real lack of knowledge (and, deeper, a lack of understanding) around women’s place in the world. But overall, she does tend to paint women as a monolithic, fairly passive group; you don’t get a strong sense of women’s own agency from this book. Also, she plays a bit fast and loose with some of the data she supplies—citing ephemeral, untrustworthy sources, and/or stretching the data pretty far to make it fit her conclusions. It’s not enough to make me completely distrust the work, but it weakens it a bit.
Super interesting book about how men and male bodies are often considered the default when it comes to design of things like seatbelts and this quite literally leads to higher death rates of women in car crashes. Also how women are excluded from drug trials and this often leads to missing information. I wish that there was a little more conversation about how white women and women of color have slightly different experiences with data gaps. Highly recommend everyone read this to understand where we are missing data collection.
This is one of those books that everyone should read, since it does after all talk about 50% of the population. It was an incredible compilation of data and personal stories that tell the struggles of being a woman in a world were they tend to be ignored because of the problems that don't apply to men, so they tend to be seen as non important.
This was such an empowering read, especially for those of us that have, in one way or another been criticized or discriminated just because of our gender.
This was such an empowering read, especially for those of us that have, in one way or another been criticized or discriminated just because of our gender.
Totally agree with other reviews about this being an important read for women and men alike. But I knocked a star off because it got to be quite repetitive and honestly, boring. I'd suggest reading this along with a more light-hearted book to switch back and forth. It was a bit much (and yes, infuriating) at times, but her research and information is phenomenal.
To those reviewers upset about how the author excludes trans + non-binary folx, I just don't think that was within the author's focus for the book, not that it isn't important. Perhaps it wasn't within the breadth of research, which was extensive to say the least. I don't think the intention was to leave out a group of people, but rather to focus solely on the specific Male v Female dynamic that's been in place for hundreds/thousands of years.
To those reviewers upset about how the author excludes trans + non-binary folx, I just don't think that was within the author's focus for the book, not that it isn't important. Perhaps it wasn't within the breadth of research, which was extensive to say the least. I don't think the intention was to leave out a group of people, but rather to focus solely on the specific Male v Female dynamic that's been in place for hundreds/thousands of years.
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